We received a call from a new customer who’d recently moved to the area and during the move let his 2005 Suzuki Boulevard C90 sit parked in a barn for about a month.
When he tried to start the bike after it had sat he found that it would not start.
We weren’t suspicious of the carbs, as 30 days isn’t all that unreasonable for a motorcycle in Ohio to sit untouched, and he’d already ruled out all suspicions of a bad battery.
We then mentioned that perhaps mice could be the culprit, given that it’d been stored in a barn, and at that time he conceded that he’d found a walnut underneath his seat. Nuts, popcorn kernels, bird seed, and insulation are usually good indicators of a mouse making a home of your bike.
Sure enough, when we removed the tank and frame covers, we found a large mouse nest (Dain joked that it were perhaps a condominium due to it’s size) wedged inside.
The mice had chewed through one of the ignition coil wires, explaining why the bike wouldn’t start.
We’ve shared stories like this in the past, and are likely to again in the future, because this is more common of a problem that what most probably think.
After removing the mouse nest and soldering the wire back together, the bike runs great again!
TIP: SPRINKLE TIDE LAUNDRY POWDER AROUND THE PARAMETER OF THE MOTORCYCLE. AN INGREDIENT IN THE POWDER BURNS THEIR FEET, THEREFORE DETERRING THEM FROM CROSS THE LINE. (BOTH METAPHORICALLY AND LITERALLY.)
